Abbott denies rift with Joe Hockey over Qantas bailout

Chief political correspondent

Tony Abbott has denied a rift with Joe Hockey over Qantas, despite expressly ruling out a debt guarantee after the Treasurer signalled it was justified.

It came as Labor offered talks on the foreign ownership stalemate, hinting it was prepared to discuss some changes to the Qantas Sale Act, short of allowing majority foreign ownership.

Effectively overruling Mr Hockey, Mr Abbott told Parliament on Thursday he would not agree to special treatment for one company at the expense of others. He said if one player received government help, the same assistance should apply to others in that sector.

That reflected an argument put forward by Qantas' chief competitor, Virgin, which claimed Qantas did not deserve a government guarantee on its borrowings because it already enjoyed a massive advantage in market share and was aggressively defending that position even as it lost money.

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The Prime Minister's parliamentary edict, which came within hours of a disastrous half-year result for the national carrier, appeared to contradict statements by Mr Hockey, who indicated Qantas was a special case. However, Mr Abbott brushed off claims of a split between the pair.

''Joe and I and [Deputy Prime Minister] Warren Truss have been in very regular dialogue on this issue,'' he said in Darwin. ''The duty of government is to do everything we reasonably can to take the costs off Qantas and to allow it to compete on a level playing field with everyone else.''